Kerala church leaders seek assembly session on ESA draft concerns

Church leaders in Kerala have urged the State government to act urgently on the mounting worries of high-range farmers over the draft notification on the Ecologically Sensitive Area (ESA) in the Western Ghats.

Thrissur Archdiocese Archbishop Mar Andrews Thazhath and Archdiocesan Pastoral Council secretary Joshi Vadakkan said the Centre and the State should hold discussions to correct provisions in the draft that could weaken the constitutional rights of high-range farmers and tribal communities to live and earn a livelihood without fear.

They called on the State government to convene a special session of the Legislative Assembly to deliberate on the concerns of more than 35 lakh people living in the 131 villages covered by the proposal.

In a joint statement, the church leaders said the ESA should be limited to forestland under government control, and that villages in Kerala should not be treated as the basic units for demarcating the zone. They also said people should retain the right to buy and sell land and to use their property as collateral for bank transactions.

The Assembly should unanimously endorse these demands and convey them to the Centre, they said.

The leaders acknowledged there can be no dispute over the need to protect the ecology of the Western Ghats. At the same time, they said, the lives and livelihoods of people who have lived and farmed in the hill regions for decades with valid records must also be safeguarded. The issue, they added, can be resolved only by placing people at the centre of sustainable development.